13 smart tricks to improve your health for just a quid

Waking up the morning after and looking at your bank balance is never a good idea. It's even less of a good idea after a four-day money-tossing bender over a bank holiday weekend. The worst part, still, is the excruciating wait until the next payday, which - at the very least - is in a week's time. How will you survive? Beans on toast? Leftover coffee? Begging on the streets? All of the above? Handily, we have a more practical answer.

With these 13 low-cost life-hacks you can blissfully cut some corners, and save yourself some dough. Tighten those purse strings, you're about to get bargain buff.

1. Make cheap mince healthy

Budget mince means more fat, but we have a revival plan for big bags of cheap protein: blotting mince on kitchen paper for 30sec after frying removes half of the original fat. Strain your new leaner mince with four cups of hot water and leave to sit for five minutes to cut sat fat by half, without reducing levels of protein, iron, zinc or vitamin B12. Now that’s what we call a return on your investment.

2. Prefer a park run

Nature's reputation as a stress-buster is well-documented, but you can now add "live longer" to your list of reasons to make a beeline for the park. Harvard University’s public health graduate school found people working or doing physical activity around nature live up to 12% longer. If your gym's top 40 "bangers" are spiking your stress levels, ditch the pricey spin class and run the park to add years to your life.

3. Sneak protein into your dessert

At a fiver a go, pints of luxury ice-cream are an expensive nutritional black hole. Plain yoghurt, a spoonful of honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon satisfies your sweet tooth using natural instead of refined sugar. As well as including protein from the yoghurt, cinnamon reduces insulin spikes, ensuring even less of your dessert is stored as fat. At under a pound for a tub of natural yoghurt, you're laughing.

4. Band together

The under-used resistance band is the most economical fitness too you can buy. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found resistance band press-ups build the same amount of muscle as the hallowed bench press. Assisting with your pull-ups, substituting your weights, stretching you out and coming very affordable, the band is your new fitness major domo.

5. Build foundations on sand

Heavyweight champion and professional man-mountain Anthony Joshua does his HIIT circuits on sand, claiming the instability improves his footwork and core strength when back on solid ground. On holiday, on the beach or even a poxy patch of sand in a park would help replicate Joshua's immense leg strength. Get ready to rumble.

6. Weigh yourself up

Whether you're buying into the latest fad diet or guzzling quick-fix replacement shakes, losing weight can be an expensive habit. All you really need are a set of scales to encourage small changes: a Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics study found that men who weigh themselves on a daily basis lose an average of 9.2kg over 6 months compared to a weight loss average of 3.1kg for men. Ditch the fads for sustainable slimming.

7. Back of the net

We can't all afford dieticians to tailor our menus for us; fortunately, the net provides plenty of services all accessible at the touch of a screen. Sites such as What Are My Macros will give you a hand in figuring out how to reach your body goals, while apps such as MyFitnessPal will track your daily progress. Take that, Tom Brady's personal chef.

8. Ditch the card games

Not poker, although that could well be where your money's gone. We mean your contactless. Binghampton University researchers found men who pay by card buy 40% more unhealthy foods, like cake and sweets. Carry cash and fatten your wallet, not your waistline.

9. Bench yourself

Some of the best bits of kit are also the most easily found. A park bench is an excuse for split squats, step ups, box jumps, tricep dips and incline press-ups. Combined with your cardio to and from the park, building muscle on the run is an easy win for the calisthenics enthusiast.

(Related: stuck for ideas? Use your bench to run through these 54 step-up variants)

10. Anti-age your skin in seconds

Anti-ageing moisturisers and skincare gear come at a hefty price tag - and are often bogus. For a quick fix, DJ and male model Jack Guinness recommends plunging your face into a bowl of icy water. The chill will tighten the skin, helping you hit the commute (or the bars) looking fresh as a daisy.

12. Send cancer oat the door

If you're shovelling down porridge post-gym, you can take comfort in also shoring up your defences against the Big C. A landmark study from Harvard found eating 70 grams of whole grain per day (the same amount as a large bowel of porridge) lowers the risk of death from all causes of cancer by 22%. Death from cardiovascular disease also fell by 20%. At just over £1 per kilo, it's the best news your body's had all morning.

13. Beat supermarket traps

On any supermarket shelf, the most caloriffic and highly-priced products are about five feet off the ground. Why? Because that's where your eyes are. You can bet the food companies are figuring out a way to pass that cost on to you – either by trimming down nutrition, ramping up cost, or both. Take the time to reach up or kneel down, and you'll find prices and nutrition labels that make a lot more sense.

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